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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:15 am • # 1 
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I eat the odd fish I catch.  When I was young, I ate many...even most of the fish I caught.  I know this has been discussed to death on many forums but I find it interesting the diversity in the fly fishing community I find when it comes to eating fish.

As for me, most fish are released but I like a fish dinner now and then and I try to teach my kids the truth about life and we eat creatures that used to be alive.  I have come up with some parameters I try to stay within when it comes to the decision whether to reduce a fish to possession or not.  I release all wild fish...which is to say, if I believe they are born in the wild and not  born in a hatchery, even if they are descendants of  hatchery fish, I try my level best to handle them properly, and gently release them.  The only exception to this is I will keep a few perch now and then which are from a local lake that were planted there long ago. 

Here in Idaho, much of my fly fishing is done on still water lakes.  Like many hatchery's around the US, they have come up with a sterile trout, (Frankenstein trout) that's soul purpose is to grow big and fast and put up a hell of a fight.  So called triploid Rainbows in fertile lakes grow to over 20 inches in a couple years and plump as a football.  They take to the air and run to the backing...time and time again.  They have placed two fish limits on these lakes and I keep one or two per trip.  They are pink...even red meated and delicious.  Henry's Lake also produces as Hybrid that is sterile that too was meant to grow big, fat and fast and fight like no tomorrow.  They taste pretty good too.  Killing a few these fish (again the limit is 2 per day) has no impact on the lake and is even healthy for the lake too.  Besides they typically live for only 4 years...or roughly 10-15 lbs.  Again, they taste good and I apologize to no one.

I'm just wondering how everyone else feels about eating a fish here and there you catch?

Dave


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:01 am • # 2 
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I did keep and eat a few trout when I lived in Colorado. Had someone demonstrate a filleting method that was very fast and took the aggravation out of it. Once in awhile I would have my guide fillet a redfish after an outing in the marsh outside New Orleans. Redfish is very good and you could not buy it in the market, as I recall. But largely, I don't want to go to the effort of cleaning fish. I don't even pretend to justify the sport on that basis. Don


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:19 am • # 3 
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I don't eat any fish that I catch. It's not that I'm against it, it's that there are so many contaminates that still lurk in our waters here in the mid-west that I'm not gonna chance it. You won't put much of a dent in panfish populations anyway, so if folks feel comfortable about eating them then more power to them. I find many fish not to my liking anyway. Bluegill, yellow perch, walleye, and catfish taste good to me, but trout I think are pretty nasty, as are bass and others.

Since I don't keep fish to eat, I just buy fish from the freezer section of the local grocery. I like Pollock so that's what I buy.

J.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 1:50 pm • # 4 
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Twice a year I go to a farmers pond and take 3 nice catfish home....And at another pond the farmer wants the gill thinned so again, I take enough for a nice mess for one fellow about 2-3 times a year....both are from ponds that I believe are healthy....I take none from our Al flowing water or lakes cause I do not trust them...if I catch a fish that looks as tho it is going to die, I also take it...if from a pond I will prepare it for the freezer...From one of the big lakes...I toss it in the woods for a wild or feral animal to eat...I do not like the work of skinning or filleting the fish, but I do really like the taste..When I do go for these outings I consider it harvesting, not fishing...I go to do a job...catch what I need/want...and go home...now the next time I go out I fish for fun...And I easily can distinguish between the two.....Rob


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:17 pm • # 5 
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I'll eat fish I catch, but none from around my house. I'll take whites from the Nolan and Brazos rivers, or stripers from PK or Dennison Dam.
There a farm ponds full of large gills look out- a few times I'll take a stringer of those home.

Les


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 8:16 pm • # 6 
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Depends on the waters I'm fishing, or if I'm in the mood to clean fish. If I'm fishing a water source that I trust, and am in the mood for fresh fish, then I have no problem keeping a few. Fishing for bluegill and crappie, I feel obligated to keep some, as it helps prolific species. It helps that they are delicious. I do not, on the other hand, care for the taste of stocked trout. Wild ones are tasty, but I can't bring myself to keep them anymore. If I lived near a place where wild trout were sustainable, I would eat well. I love the taste of a small, pan sized trout.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:46 pm • # 7 
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RDRogers wrote:
Wild ones are tasty, but I can't bring myself to keep them anymore. If I lived near a place where wild trout were sustainable, I would eat well. I love the taste of a small, pan sized trout.
Not me, I think that trout are a soft mushy flesh even if filleted and pan fried! You could "clean out" a small wild trout stream if you kept enough for lunch!! Why kill something that gives you so much pleasure?
I only eat saltwater fish. My brother has a 28' GW and we can catch lots of flounder out in the clean ocean.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:05 am • # 8 
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I kill and eat maybe 5% of the fish I catch.  Some on purpose, and some when I think they won't survive release.
When I do kill one, I try to make it a really worthwhile occasion.  With friends if possible, a special recipe, the best ingredients, nice wine, and sharing stories.  It's a fulfilling experience and a wholesome completion of the recreational activity of fishing.

For me personally, I think the ability and intention to kill wisely, even if not exercised on a given day, and to use fish in a respectful way is an important element of my enjoyment of nature Image

I will never deliberately kill a fish if it is destined for deep freezer.  My dead fish are going to be eaten today, or at worst no later than tomorrow.

I will never deliberately kill a fish that is endangered or even one that is threatened in a particular habitat range but common elsewhere.

While it remains legal to buy fish that have been commercially harvested I will defend my rights to fish as a recreational activity.  And I will speak out against those those abuse fisheries in any way.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:28 am • # 9 
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Quote:
1wt wrote:
Quote:
Not me, I think that trout are a soft mushy flesh even if filleted and pan fried! You could "clean out" a small wild trout stream if you kept enough for lunch!! Why kill something that gives you so much pleasure?
I only eat saltwater fish. My brother has a 28' GW and we can catch lots of flounder out in the clean ocean.
If you reread my post you will see that I rarely keep fish, and that I do not keep wild trout anymore, even though I like the way they taste.  I said that I would like to eat them if there were a sustainable population of them. There are places where harvesting a few is not harmful to the population.   I said nothing about cleaning out a small wild trout stream.  Sounds like you are putting words in my mouth.  


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 1:42 pm • # 10 
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Too much runoff in the local ponds here for me to eat anything fresh water wise. I do keep the occasional Speckled Sea Trout out of the river though!


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:58 pm • # 11 
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GH,
I'm with you-I love eating specs- they are tons of them and sand trout in the Gulf. If you take a 3 -6 smaller under 24" home, no problem. In fact most of the trouble came from commercial gill netters.
However, if you were to take an ice box every trip and many were breeding stock 24"+, and everyone else took the same we'd be back in the same pickle we found ourselves in the late seventies- early eighties. Plunging fish populations.
The solution is proper fish management.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 3:04 pm • # 12 
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Since the very cold season we have had here it has been a tough year for the fish here in Florida, I have been being especially careful to release all the fish. The Snook and Tarpon have been hammered enough. It will take years before the population returns to anywhere near normal. On the bright side...the Bluefish and Pompano faired just fine and I have been lucky enough to have a few of them accept my invitation to dinner!


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 6:28 pm • # 13 
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I can remember when specs and reds were all but gone in the gulf. It is nice to have them back. The smaller specs are tasty. They don't taste great after they've been frozen, though. I like Pompano, too.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 6:50 pm • # 14 
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Ahi is great stuff. years back I caught some fresh in Kawaii- Kay & I took 'em to a local restaurant and ate it as sushi and barbecued. Very nice indeed.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 6:43 pm • # 15 
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Although I mostly always throw the fish back, I will keep a couple of trout for my father; it's always a treat for him.
The odd bass will go to a farmer friend of mine, who really injoys them.

As far as myself, I don't really enjoy eating fish, I would rather have a good steak, or marinated kabobs.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:32 am • # 16 
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I love wild trout to eat but almost never do. Invasive species from clean water.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:50 am • # 17 
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Noiso wrote:
I love wild trout to eat but almost never do. Invasive species from clean water.
Welcome to the UL Forums.

J.


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 6:33 am • # 18 
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I say eat all the fish you want EXCEPT wild trout (hatchery trout exempted)---anyone who kills a trout at my place in Michigan is removed from the invite list!

Paul


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:02 pm • # 19 
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I live in New Jersey......does that tell you why I don't eat anything I catch? Don't want to glow at night!!

Jim


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 Post subject: Eating Fish
PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:33 pm • # 20 
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Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio in the 60's and eating fish from Lake Erie, it was easy - we threw back the two-headed ones!


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